Justice News

EPA and the Commonwealth of Kentucky Reach Agreement with Logan Aluminum Inc. to Resolve Allegations of Clean Air Act Violations

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, along with the Commonwealth of Kentucky, have filed a complaint and entered into a consent decree with Logan Aluminum Inc. to settle alleged violations of the Clean Air Act’s National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Secondary Aluminum Production occurring at Logan Aluminum’s Russellville, Ky., secondary aluminum facility.

The proposed consent decree resolves claims of the United States and the commonwealth under the Clean Air Act and related provisions of the laws of the commonwealth. Under the terms of the decree, Logan Aluminum will pay a civil penalty of $285,000 and install a pollution control device called a baghouse for one of its furnace’s capture/collection systems. The civil penalty is the second highest to be negotiated in dealing with a single facility for violations of the Clean Air Act’s secondary aluminum production regulations.

Logan Aluminum manufactures aluminum coils which are used in the beverage industry. Part of the production process for these coils causes emissions of potential pollutants such as dioxins and furans, hydrogen chloride and particulate matter.

The complaint was filed and the consent decree lodged contemporaneously in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky on Dec. 8, 2010. Notice of the lodging of the consent decree will appear in the Federal Register allowing for a 30-day public comment period before the consent decree can be entered by the court as final judgment.